Most kids play with their Legos, then leave them lying around for unsuspecting parents to step on. Not so for one Conroe teen.

Zach Boivin, 16, has turned his Lego collection into a $40,000 series of animation projects and he's now up for a national award for his work.

He's done it by tackling advertising projects offered on a website that crowdsources ideas and jobs for national companies.

"His work is nothing short of spectacular," said Caleb Light-Wills, senior vice president of product at Tongal, through which Boivin operates. "The depth he achieves in 3 minute (videos) is amazing."

Boivin is a master of so-called stop motion animation, the art of making physically still objects appear to move by shifting them in tiny increments, a process just simulated in the Hollywood hit The Lego Movie.

His Lego City Airport and Coast Guard video project got him nominated for Best 2-D Animation at next month's awards. That netted him $2,850. It would've taken mowing alot of lawns and and flipping alot of burgers to make that.

His first effort, Car Crooks, is the story of Lego car thieves stealing from an unsuspecting Lego lady, only to be chased down by a hard core Lego SWAT team. It won him $10,000 in 2012.

"I feel really blessed," said Boivin at the time of that win. "It took about 40 days from start to finish to complete. First I had to build sets. After that, I did all the stop motion animation, which took the most time."

Boivin did everything himself, except one piece of voice acting that he got his Mom to do.

Now he's up for Best 2-D Animation at the first ever Tongal awards and will fly to Los Angeles next month to see if he wins.

Videos like Car Crooks and the many others Zach has made for Lego have become key to the brand's marketing campaign, providing vital material to feed the bottomless pit that is social media networking.

"Tongal is a great way for us to source fan created content and find inspiration from some of our biggest and most creative fans," said Amanda Santoro, brand relations manager at Lego. "We are thrilled that Zach is such a fan of the LEGO Group."

Boivin and thousands like him are part of a new breed of entrepreneurs making cash from crowdsourcing websites like Tongal.

It works by having advertising projects posted by huge companies like Lego, McDonalds, Kool-Aid and more on sites like Tongal.

Then, through the wonder of the internet, anyone, anywhere in the world, including teens in small towns like Conroe, can put themselves forward for the jobs, which would previously have been restricted to top ad agencies and filmmakers.

Tongal says it has revolutionized the ad business.

"In the past, you had to get yourself in front of the right person, but we knew there were people out there, talented and creative people, this is a game changer," said Light-Wills.

It's probably safe to say there are many noses out of joint in the world of advertising.

Crowdsourcing means they can be massively undercut by people essentially making videos for fun, happy with whatever they earn.

A 40-day job like the one Boivin undertook for Car Crooks might have earned an ad agency or filmmaker more than 10 times what Lego paid the teen.

"The thing that is lost is, we want to be complementary with them," said Light-Wills, admitting he understands his company and others like it are potentially threatening to agencies.

Current opportunities on the site include the chance to make an ad for Bud Light's new twist-off bottle with the beer brand adding an extra level to the challenge by warning bidders to stay away from unsophisticated humor.

"They want a break from the past and do NOT want this content to be juvenile or sophomoric," says the project outline, which lists a top award of $22,000. It's a mere drop in the beer ocean for any self-respecting ad campaign.

Members can also make money from just having an idea for an ad without ever having to produce it.

Zach Boivin won $1,000 for this idea for a Lego ninja turtles video:

"Turtles texting while skating. Splinter is buying ice cream at an ice-cream stand on a street corner. All 4 turtles crash into the stand, knocking his ice-cream out of his hand. Splinter isn't happy."

As far as Boivin is concerned, he is happy to enjoy his money-making skills as a sideline not a profession.

"It's a hobby that I like to do for fun," he said in his online interview.